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Magic
Every good has its price. Every advantage comes at a cost. In Cities of Astros, there are various forms of Magic dispersed around the known world. Each form has its own purpose and effects, and its own toll. In exchange for power, a user of Magic must pay the price. Narn Narn is a form of magic most commonly found in Rasidos, and sometimes, though more rarely, in Roc. It presides around 2 principles: Scrying and Cursing. Scrying is the creation of prophecies and the foretelling of the future. The powerful oracles of Rasidos use this to the advantage of the state, however, often more information is withheld than told by the oracles. Prophecies require a lot of concentration from the scryer, and are often very difficult to understand. Very often, a scryer will either write down what they see in the prophecy, though this often results in incipherable scribblings rather than comprehensible words, or have a scribe write their visions for them - this gives more accurate accounts. Amateur scryers may often only see things that will happen tomorrow, for instance. Adept scryers are able to see up to a month or so, experienced scryers may see years ahead of time, and master scryers, the ones that are part of the Council of Oracles, can see hundreds of years into the future. Cursing is the act of laying a curse upon someone. Their effects vary greatly, ranging from impotence to insanity. There is a fair amount of practicioners of Cursing, however, due to the toll of Narn, a lot of the low-level curse practicioners are malformed, mangled, or otherwise affected by their own curses. The Council of Oracles has a sub-order, namely the School of Curses, which teaches the art of Cursing, and produces higher-level practicioners. For information on the various curses available to users of Narn, visit the Curses page. The toll of using Narn magic is that curses may backfire when casted, especially when a curse is cast without much experience, thus an undesired effect may fall upon the caster. The toll that comes with scrying is that prophecies can be powerful enough to rend the user insane, or otherwise damage their cognitive abilities Astyra Astyra is a form of magic that is native to the Astrian peninsula. In the past, practicioners were rare, and when they did pop up, the Inquisition stuck the tag of "heretics" onto them, and dealt with these "naysayers" or "destroyers of divine word" without any time wasted. However, more recently, alchemy and the practicing of Astyran magic has become allowed - however, still under strict control of the Dualist Church. In order to become an alchemist or an Astyran mage, one must acquire a license from the Church. Astyra is used through the consumption of special concoctions, which enable the latent magical ability in humanity. The most common concoction is Astyran wine. However, these concoctions are not without their own toll; a curse known as Piet's curse besets those who ingest them, and the level of the curse varies depending on the quality of the concoction. The curse makes the user unable to ever quench their needs - they can't ever displace their thirst or hunger. Piet's curse almost always results in insanity with extended use. Along with Piet's curse, the concoctions are known to burn away the insides of the users, rending their organs to shreds. Church-approved magic practicioners are often giver higher quality Astyran wine, which causes Piet's curse, or other undesired effects, more rarely. However, they still happen sometimes, especially with prolonged consecutive use. However, despite this gigantic toll, Astyra profers to its users almost god-like abilities. These abilities range from control of a target's emotions, to the ability to plant ideas into a target's mind. With that said, it is best to be wary of such users. A list of the spells available can be found on the Spells page. Dytrae Dytrae is a form of magic found across the tribes of Pazzi. Due to the conquest of Kyrteca and an intense inquisitionary pressence in the region, it is a dying branch of magic. Use of this magic used to be fairly common, and its effects are often rather subliminal, and considered as blessings from the tribal gods. Dytrae is utilised through the sacrifice of life. The Gallacci would sacrifice a portion of their crops to their gods, the Bastuli - their kills, along with prisoners of war, and the Noricci their fish. However, at the core of all this sacrifice, it is the offering of life that acts as a mechanism towards its effects. Dytrae magic allows the user to manipulate life, on lower levels this allows the user to improve harvest and other such things, and on higher levels, a user can tame a beast and have it as a familiar. Higher level Dytrae magic also includes growing things instantaneously; some of the Pazzi folklore speaks of shamans growing entire forests, or cursing entire valleys with ungrowth. However, in order to access the higher echelons, one must sacrifice human blood. There are those who see past the religious aspect, and will either let their own blood in exchange for their powers, or murder others in order to collect enough blood for their rites. After all, power is not without its drawbacks. Dytrae is currently outlawed in the Kyrtecan region by the Dualist Church. However, some of the mages still exist, practicing in secret, hiding their actions from the ever-prying eyes of the Astrian God. Due to the difficulty of enforcing laws in the forested regions of Kyrteca Regmontica, the Regmont-conquered region of the north, more practicioners exist in the area. Amonamancy Amonamancy is a form of magic found within the Eastern Astrian Empire. It is said to have formed when the Astrian Empire conquered the lands of Amona - as a result, it is a mixture of the magic of the native magi and Astyra. It is induced in perhaps the most mundane way - by consuming an unusual mixture of fossil and herbal powders through the nose, ground to powder. Usually the magic-invoking abilities of the mixture last from 1 to 3 hours when the concoction is grinded into soft, silky-smooth powder, where the usual on-the-go mix can invoke magical abilities for up to 1 hour. The magic manifests itself in a strange way, as the user becomes able to see visions. However, the user is not able to tell whether they are real or false. Some of the visions are said to be clouded prophecies, or visions of the distant past - however, it is unclear who do they belong to in particular, nor is it certain that they're real. Yet, with enough training, an Amonamancer can differentiate between fake and real visions, or even identify whom they belong to. Of all the existing kinds of magic in Parvalla, Amonamancy is the most difficult to master, due to its dual nature of being a hybrid between Narn and Astyra (whereas before it used to be the ancestral magic of Narn practicioners). However, the highest echelons of the magic, achieved with near total mastery of this art, come with the greatest reward - a Master Amonamancer is capable of total mind control, or other influence over another living being's actions. For all that, Amonamancy is regulated by the Emperor of Amona and the Nasaru, the Ammonite secret police force. Some say it's used to control the masses, like puppets on a string... Category:Lore Category:Magic